TORONTO — Teresa and Joe Henrique left the family farm on Monday to meet their second-oldest son for dinner in Toronto. Ilya Kovalchuk, the New Jersey Devils winger with the US$100-million contract, walked into the same restaurant shortly after they arrived, accompanied by teammates Alexei Ponikarovsky and Anton Volchenkov.

They all seemed so big.

Teresa and Joe have four sons, but their second oldest has made a career of leading them into situations they had never really imagined, and this was just another of those. For one, not only was Adam Henrique a teammate of those players, he was a key teammate.

“And Adam’s brothers … we’re sitting there in awe of these people,” Teresa said. “And he’s one of them. It really is surreal, because we do come from a very small town, and it’s hard to believe, really.”

“I’m still shocked to see him playing on NHL ice,” said Joe, who farms 50 acres of tobacco and ginseng in Burford, Ont., about 90 minutes west of Toronto.

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Teresa and Joe were getting ready to drive back to Toronto on Tuesday, where two dozen friends and family members would cheer an unheralded 22-year-old centre who has crept quietly into contention for the NHL’s rookie-of-the-year award. Henrique began the season in the minors, but led all rookies in scoring heading into play against the Maple Leafs, playing on a line with Kovalchuk on one side, and Zach Parise on the other.

Henrique had 39 points through 50 games, more than more famous contemporaries such as Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (35 points), Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog (33), and Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier (21). The latter three were all first-round draft picks, while Henrique was a third-round selection in 2008.

It has been more than a decade since a skater selected outside the first round of the NHL Entry Draft has gone on to win the Calder Trophy as the best rookie. Chris Drury, taken by the Quebec Nordiques in the third round of the 1994 draft (72nd overall), was the last skater to do it, winning the Calder in 1999.

“It’s been something I try not to focus on,” Henrique said. “I just try to go out to play. So when people talk about it, it’s an honour just for people to talk about it. I didn’t think I’d be in the spot that I am. It’s pretty cool, but it’s something I try not to focus on too much.”

His parents try not to think about it, either.

They raised Henrique and his brothers on the farm. Adam learned the value of hard work in the fields over the summer, and especially the value of any hard work that would save him from having to spend the rest of his life farming.

Harvesting tobacco was difficult, messy work.

“You sit on a machine, and you’re kind of bent over and picking by hand,” Teresa said. “The leaves are smacking you in the face and getting black tar on everything, all over you.”

“He was never really an early-morning person,” Joe said. “He preferred to play hockey.”

And hockey took him to Windsor, where he joined an Ontario Hockey League franchise that had just been taken over by former NHL players Warren Rychel and Bob Boughner. Rychel scouted Henrique himself, and can still remember driving up the dirt road to the farm to convince Henrique’s parents to send their son to play for the Spitfires.

Henrique spent four seasons with the Spitfires, and won two Memorial Cup titles with a roster that was, in essence, an all-star team. Taylor Hall, Ryan Ellis, Cam Fowler, Zack Kassian and Eric Wellwood are among the players from that second championship team who have already made appearances in the NHL.

“Yeah, he was under the radar, but he was so reliable, everyone here knew how good of a player he was,” Rychel said. “We could trust him in any situation. He was on if we were up a goal or down a goal. It was faceoffs, hitting, body position.”

Unlike Nugent-Hopkins in Edmonton, Henrique did not become an immediate sensation in New Jersey. He had a poor training camp and spent time in the minors before landing in the middle of the team’s most expensive line.

“What makes Adam special — and I’ve said this all along — is that he’s unflappable,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “He’s playing with two of the top 10 forwards in the world on either wing, and you’re a 19-, 20-year-old kid, and he’s not intimidated.”

And neither is he taking anything for granted. Henrique has often said that playing with Kovalchuk and Parise is “an honour,” and he has candidly admitted he never expected to be in this position this early in his career.

His ascent has also surprised his family, if only pleasantly.

“People ask me if [his brothers] get jealous and I’m like, ‘Well, no, they’re pretty supportive,’ ” Teresa Henrique said with a chuckle. “We’re just riding his coattails. And we’re enjoying the ride.”

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